Perler Bead Pattern Generator

From a picture to a bead pattern

Set the width in beads: 29 beads fills one large square pegboard, and 58 fills a two-by-two set. The generator matches every cell to the nearest Perler color, draws the board edges in bold and counts the beads you need of each color. Turn on “Remove the background” to skip a plain area around the subject, so you only place the beads that matter.

• Use “Most colors” to keep the pattern to colors you can buy in one trip; 8 to 12 is plenty for most designs.
• Under “Use only the colors I have”, list your codes (for example P01, P03, P18) and the pattern uses nothing else.
• Turn dithering off for beads: scattered single beads are slow to place and look noisy once fused.
• Print the chart: each pegboard gets its own numbered page that matches the board you are working on.

Bead size and finished size

Perler’s standard beads sit about 5 mm apart on the pegboard, so the finished size is roughly the bead count times 5 mm, and a 29-bead board makes a piece about 14.5 cm (5.7 in) across. Beads shrink a little when fused, so treat the size as close, not exact.

Matching colors to your bead jar

Screen colors are approximations of each bead color; batches, lighting and your monitor all shift them. If a color looks off once you lay beads out, use Swap in the color list to replace it with another Perler color everywhere in the pattern.